looks to simplify strategy

by Josh Hamel

After working at big developers like Electronic Arts for years, the team that would come to comprise 17 Bit decided to set out and make their own games. Three years in the making, their first title, Skulls of the Shogun, is nearly ready for release.

Inspired by titles like Advance Wars and a love for 1960s anime, Skulls of the Shogun is all about simplifying the turn-based strategy genre by getting rid of everything that is not necessary. “How far can we go without losing the strategy?” asks Ben Vance from 17 Bit.

One example Vance gave was earlier in the development process, players had the option to defend units or themselves to take less damage. The team saw that this made games longer and the project really did not suffer when the feature was taken out. While you may be worried the team oversimplified the game, Vance assured Skulls of the Shogun is one of those titles that is simple to play but difficult to master.

And this is not just an indie game that may or may not be noticed on Steam, Skulls of the Shogun has found a lot of support from Microsoft. When the game releases, it will not just launch on Xbox 360, but also in the Windows 8 App Store, on Windows Phone and on Microsoft’s new Surface tablet with asynchronous multiplayer between all the platforms.

“It’s fantastic,” said Vance on nearing the development finish line. “We all come from big developers and this our first smaller scale project that has our own blood, sweat and tears in it.”

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